With TNT airing reruns of "Law & Order" on a constant loop, you can find Tovah Feldshuh on television nearly every day, sparring with D.A. Jack McCoy as the take-no-guff defense attorney Danielle Melnick. But Feldshuh is ultimately a creature of the theater, and she has four Tony nominations to prove it. She has a particular affinity for biographical roles, including Tallulah Bankhead and Golda Meir. These days, Feldshuh transforms herself into Katharine Hepburn, at age 76,...

Anyone who visits Hollywood always winds up taking one of those "homes of the stars" tours. But you can do the same thing in New York-thanks to a new book that uncovers the Big Apple's top 10 celebrity addresses: The San Remo 145-146 Central Park West: Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, Dustin Hoffman, Diane Keaton, Elaine May, Keir Dullea, Mary Tyler Moore, Barry Manilow, Mick Jones, Billy Squire, Victoria Tennant and Steve Martin (ghosts: Rita Hayworth,...

If you know classical music, you know James Conlon, conductor and new music director of the Ravinia Festival. The 55-year-old maestro has appeared with nearly every major orchestra in the U.S. and Europe and has been a regular conductor with New York's Metropolitan Opera and Chica-go's Lyric Opera. In 2006, he will assume the post of music director for the Los Angeles Opera. But first, his tenure in Chicagoland this summer. His summer digs for Ravinia are a short commute...

Former Channel 2 news anchor Linda MacLennan and her husband have paid $1,912,765 for a newly built, 11-room home in Lincoln Park. MacLennan, who turns 47 Sunday, resigned in February after 14 years as an anchor at "CBS-2." In December, she and her husband, attorney David Rammelt, sold their Lincoln Park home of almost nine years for $1.5 million. Now, she has bought a five-bedroom brick and limestone house -- the fifth million-dollar-plus sale on MacLennan's block since 2000.

A five-alarm fire sparked by a falling lamp swept through legendary vibraphonist Lionel Hampton's 28th-floor apartment near Lincoln Center Tuesday, injuring 27 people--including 11 firefighters-- and sending smoke billowing through the skyscraper. Two attendants who work for the 83-year-old Hampton, confined to a wheelchair since suffering two strokes in 1995, got him outside safely. It took more than two hours for more than 200 firefighters to bring the fire in the 42-story high-rise under...

When Alyssa Shelasky, 26, was apartment-hunting in January on West 78th Street near West End Avenue, the owner of a property she didn't find especially captivating shared some news he thought would help seal the deal. "He said, `Britney Spears is buying the brownstone two blocks down,"' she said, "like that was supposed to make up for the fact that it was a fifth-floor, 400-square-foot one-bedroom walk-up renting for $2,500 a month." In New York, one runs across celebrities...

The construction of superluxury condominiums has been growing at a rapid clip in Manhattan over the last few years. But Central Park West has been glaringly absent from this flurry of activity, despite its obvious appeal to affluent buyers, because virtually no sites have been available for redevelopment. Now, however, two development partners, David Edelstein and Harry Simpson, are building on one of the few Central Park West sites suited to the purpose, at the corner of...

Former Cub Mark Grace has sold his 13-room brick and limestone home in Lincoln Park for $1.655 million. Grace, a fan favorite who now plays for the Arizona Diamondbacks, listed the almost 5,000-square-foot, four-bedroom house last fall for $2.25 million. Grace bought the four-story house, in late 1999 through a bank trust for $1.575 million. Custom-built in 1993 and designed by the firm Pappageorge & Haymes, the home has an elevator, heated two-car garage, three fireplaces, skyline...

Bill Cosby and Ted Danson will return to new sitcoms for CBS next fall, the network announced Wednesday. As part of a strategy to regain its traditional, older audience, the third-place network announced a lineup heavy on old stars in new programs, as well as programs that should be comfortable for viewers in its target 25- to 54-year-old age group. CBS at the beginning of this season tried to remake its image by pushing sex-laden, younger-skewing shows like "Central Park West," then...

U2 lead singer Bono has won the board'sapproval to buy a $3.4 million co-op on New York City's Upper West Side. Bono, 40, reportedly used his real name, Paul Hewson, on the co-op board application for the El Dorado, a 32-story, twin-towered Art Deco building at 300 Central Park West that dates to the 1930s. Bono reportedly recently refurbished the three-bedroom unit, which is on the building's 16th floor and reportedly has four baths and great views. Neighbors in Bono's building,...

By Maureen Dowd. (copyright) 1995 N.Y. Times News Service | July 13, 1995

Not since yuppies made the wrenching discovery back in 1985 that Brie actually could get too ripe, has the Upper West Side had such an identity crisis. Wendy Wasserstein knew something was awry when she walked into a building on Central Park West the other day, looking for an apartment, and was proudly informed by the doorman: "You know who lives here? Steven Spielberg's screenwriter and Julia Roberts's agent." "It's getting to be like `77 Sunset Strip' around here," the playwright...

Wake up, you apartment junkies! Do you want to know exactly how much apartments are selling for in New York? Want to read about a neighborhood? The 10 best views of Central Park? The 10 best water tank enclosures? (Yeah, those things up on the roof.) There's a new Web site where you don't have to buy anything, and it's owners pledge not to bug you with unwanted calls and "cookies," those secret little files that advertisers place on your computer to follow you around. It's...

Let's get this straight. These guys don't even look like New Yorkers. In fact, even if they were born in New York, they'll never be real New Yorkers. Is it too much to ask for a little reality served with my nightly ration of TV? Every show from "Friends" to "The Single Guy" to "Central Park West" to the now long-in-the-tooth "Seinfeld" serves up what appears to be one stylist's idea of what New Yorkers look like. They are too coordinated. Too Banana...

It is midnight on Central Park West. Edwin DeCastro, 41, a customer-service representative at PaineWebber, and his wife, Dr. Yolanda Aranguren-DeCastro, 37, a physician, have just discovered that they are out of disposable diapers and baby wipes. Does he dash down to Rite-Aid? No, he gets into his gold Grand Cherokee Laredo, with the serious roof rack, and makes an emergency run down the West Side Highway to Manhattan Mini Storage on 44th Street and 12th Avenue. For the DeCastros, who buy in bulk at Costco,...

Wake up, you apartment junkies! Do you want to know exactly how much apartments are selling for in New York? Want to read about a neighborhood? The 10 best views of Central Park? The 10 best water tank enclosures? (Yeah, those things up on the roof.) There's a new Web site where you don't have to buy anything, and it's owners pledge not to bug you with unwanted calls and "cookies," those secret little files that advertisers place on your computer to follow you around. It's...

The old look never seems to go out of style--in architecture, at least. Stonegate Terrace, a new condominium development in Chicago, was designed to blend in with the mature Lincoln Park neighborhood where it is being built. When complete, the seven-story structure at 615 W. Deming Pl. will house 17 residences in single-level, two-story and penthouse floor plans. They range in price from $325,000 to $750,000 and in size from 1,250 to 2,700 square feet. First occupancies...

- When "Central Park West" comes back, will it repeat the episode in which Mariel Hemingway left? I missed that episode. Actually, you're not alone, because it didn't air before CBS quickly yanked the serial from its Wednesday-night lineup. By that time, it was no secret that Hemingway would be leaving the show; as of press time, no date had been announced for its return, but there are several ways that the departure of the actress' magazine-editor character...

A five-alarm fire sparked by a falling lamp swept through legendary vibraphonist Lionel Hampton's 28th-floor apartment near Lincoln Center Tuesday, injuring 27 people--including 11 firefighters-- and sending smoke billowing through the skyscraper. Two attendants who work for the 83-year-old Hampton, confined to a wheelchair since suffering two strokes in 1995, got him outside safely. It took more than two hours for more than 200 firefighters to bring the fire in the 42-story high-rise under...